Moments after Ezra left the siblings, a portal emerged in front of the establishment, and a lady with a hat garbed in all purple stepped out.
It was Elisa.
Just as Valentine could pinpoint her mother's marks, Elisa could feel the fluctuation of her marks.
A marked set point was a space mage's signature, it would be weirder if they didn't notice an intrusion.
Of course, that didn't mean they could interfere when not nearby-they were simply notified.
Elisa took it a step further. She'd placed a marker on Valentine the day she dropped her off at Arcadia, as a measure of safety.
The marker did not tell the person's condition else Elisa would've appeared at Arcadia before Ezra would have woken up.
Also, Arcadia was a prison at least five centuries old, with only ten inmates ever escaping-Elisa could've never foreseen its destruction nor would she have believed it.
As such Elisas was immediately alerted the moment Valentine stepped out of Arcadia.
She was alarmed, but calmed herself nevertheless, hasty actions rarely gave good results, especially in this situation, where she lacked any information.
But then, she was notified of the use of her mark, one placed exactly where Valentine stood.
Her anxiety came down a few centimeters.
For one, her daughter wasn't being kidnapped-else she wouldn't be using her set marks.
Beyond the blood ties, Elisa's set marks were well hidden.
Now, Elisa theorized that Valentine was being chased by something, especially noticing how fast she opened, stabilized and closed the set portals.
Elisa had all the set points for her portals memorized, so she knew Valentine's location once the marks notified her, and was able to chart Valentine's travel trajectory.
'Niton'
Elisa didn't rush out to get her daughter, but stood on standby to warp to her position the moment Valentine changed trajectory or stopped moving.
She ended up watching for hours as Valentine went through portal after portal eventually ending up in Niton.
'This is strange' Elisa was both surprised and perplexed.
While proud that her daughter was able to cover such a large distance in so little time, while perplexed as to how it was done.
'She must have been training hard in Arcadia'
Elisa chalked it up to training though doubtful that such growth could be gained so fast.
Watching expectedly as to when the journey would come to a stop, she wasn't surprised to see Valentine halt after just one more portal.
With that, Elisa warped to the location soon after, getting there she eases onto Valentine's location.
Her daughter had lodged in a hotel.
She was just about heading there when she spotted a familiar figure dusting sand off his body in the distance.
Squinting her eyes, Elisa was appropriately shocked.
It was a face all too familiar.
"Head Warden?"
"Hmm?" the figure turned in her direction, and surely, he was the one.
Numerous question marks popped up.
Why was the head of Niton's most fearsome prison guard, someone matching Elisa at Greatmaster rank wiping sand off his being.
No, in the first place what was he doing here?!
With questions abound, Elisa warped in front of him, only to be shocked once more.
The man's right eyes and lips were swollen. His left hand mangled, fractured and dangling.
Elisa felt a chill down her spine, the image in her head and the one in front of her did not correlate.
But they were the same person.
"What happened to you?!"
"Thawmn dwamm bie…
His swollen lips had him shouting incomprehensible words. So, Elisa gave him a healing potion, a high level one.
The swelling came down drastically and the head warden recovered some mana, blowing off the sand on his body.
The man cursed. His shouts now comprehensible. "That damn boy!" he yelled, before calming down, gasping in deep breaths.
Elisa had to cover her ears to avoid the loud yell.
"What happened?" she asked. "Why are you here? What happened to Arcadia?"
"Arcadia has been destroyed" the head warden spoke.
"That's impossible" she said flatly. Such claims were so outrageous, she refused to consider the possibility.
Even sharing gazes, Elisa realized he was dead serious.
"How?" she asked, aghast. "That prison is more than five centuries old, how did it get destroyed?"
"Ask your prisoner" he said. "You should ask the prisoner you brought to us-he destroyed Arcadia"
"Ezra?" she asked doubtfully.
"Yes him!"
"Wait" Elisa paused, thinking, 'He couldn't have arrived in Niton unless…'
"You followed my daughter here?" she asked.
He scratched his head. "I was dragged along"
Frustrated, Elisa turned in the direction of the hotel to get Valentine.
But the head warden pulled her back.
"Where are you going?"
"To get my daughter", Elisa said, distasteful as she failed to pull her hand out of his grip.
"You can't" he stared her straight in the eye. "You won't be able to"
"What nonsense are you-"
Sighing, the head warden began explaining the events having transpired in the past hours, from Ezra's awakening to the release of the prisoners, to their arrival here.
As a matter of course, he pleasantly forgot to tell her of the part of which he was unconscious and had no real proof beyond Ezra's words that Arcadia had been destroyed.
Also, he sprinkled a bit of sauce on the story to make Ezra's threat level higher.
With most of the story fitting, especially since she'd seen how badly he'd been bruised, Elisa had to calm down.
"So you're saying, he's keeping her alive because she's useful" Elisa reiterated.
The head warden nodded. "If you confront him and he doesn't release Valentine, you will be forced to fight him, and if you fight him" he paused for a sec, "You will surely die"
Firstly, the head warden had seen Valentine bleeding from both eyes and ears, in no position to move-which was why Ezra had them rest here.
Also, Ezra didn't kill any of the guards but forced them to join him, but the head warden wasn't willing to bet on a demon having sound mind.
"So what should I do?" Elisa inquired.
"I will help you" said the head warden. "We'll wait for a chance to take her away"
They made sure to stay a distance away from the hotel, the awareness of a grandmaster was frightening.
With Ezra eating and patching memories all through the night, they didn't risk it.
The night passed like such.
Then at dawn the next day, they see Ezra fly off into the sky, leaving both perplexed, but Elisa didn't dilly-dally, warping in front of the hotel right after.
Contrary to expectations, The sibling who saw her wasn't hostile in the least when Elisa requested to see her daughter.
Moving with haste, she found her daughter sleeping peacefully and well attended to.
She couldn't help but wonder if all the head warden said was true.
Rubbing the head of her daughter, Valentine's eyelids slowly opened.
"Mother?" she said weakly. "What are you doing here?"
"That's a question for later" Elisa replied. "You've outdid yourself, travelling across continents. But it has clearly taken a toll on you"
"I'm doing fine" Valentine smiled. "I'll be back to full health in a few days"
"Whatever the case, I'm bringing you home"
With a few hand movements, she opened a portal in the room, one big enough for the entire bed to go through.
But…
"Wait" Valentine called out, bringing the others to a pause.
"You have to bring the others too"
"Others?"
"Yes" Valentine nodded. "Those who came along with me"
Elisa looked her daughter up and down. "You've changed"
When did Valentine ever care about others in the past? This was a new phenomenon.
"Thank you" she replied, her eyes heavy.
With a sigh, Elisa decided it wasn't a terrible idea to bring them along.
So, she did.
The siblings had no qualms with it, and if they didn't, then the others didn't either.
Besides, the academy was close to Traxford, reaching Black Jaws was easy now.
Traversing the portal and arriving at Valentine's place, she begged her mom to allow them stay since everyone was still exhausted from the past day's journey, which Elisa graciously accepted.
With that, Valentine, Velora and Roxanne conversed nonstop.
Time passed, and Elisa sprung to her feet and headed out to 'take care of something very important' she tells Valentine.
Which was transporting the party of grandmasters to Quarzet.
Present Moment…
Transporting the grandmasters, Elisa found herself at the war front with thousands of others gathered.
Not long after, thunderous and ear-splitting explosions rang out in succession as the grandmasters faced one another, from wind to water to metal attacks, and then lightning streaked through the sky descending onto something.
Not long after, a sea of fire engulfed the land, thoroughly destroying it.
The power within the attacks radiated all through the kingdom, for Elisa was miles after from where the battle was happening yet was unbalanced as the ground shook.
Soon after, she saw something streak to the sky faster than a falling star, heading in the direction of the battle.
All while fighting her own battle.
